Bait - A Novel : The Setting

Bait - A Novel by Loren Stone

The Setting

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

Bait is set in part, in Amish Country, or Pennsylvania Dutch Country -- a region in southeastern Pennsylvania where Amish, Old Order Mennonite and Brethren farming communities still exist. The world "Dutch" is not a reference to Holland or the Dutch, rather Deutsch, or Deitsch, which is German for... well, "German". Although, another point to consider, is that when these ancestors first came over, there wasn't really the same kind of Germany in Europe that there is today, and the idea of German national identity wasn't the same as it is today. So, just about everybody who came from the general vicinity of what is now Germany, was considered Dutch.

The folks who settled this part of the world were German pietists, or protestants from German-speaking Europe, who were some of the first protestants. They were persecuted and drive from their homes over long years of religious upheaval, and they migrated to the New World for the sake of religious freedom. My own ancestors' protestantism dates back to hundreds of years prior to the birth of Martin Luther, and that tradition of spiritual dissent is still very much alive in me.

Southeastern Pennsylvania has long been a hotbed of religious pietism and holiness revival movements. Religious revival movements have regularly taken place in that part of the world, as church groups evolved and congregations split over theological interpretations and religious differences. A common theme to group divisions has been the "worldliness" of biblical interpretation, and the feeling that denominations have been compromised by corrupting worldly influences. Within this historical context, people of German pietist extraction still retain this critical strain and often distrust those who are outside their faith traditions. The one thing that these disparate groups have in common, however, is a deep and abiding devotion to their faith and iron-willed determination to do the Will of God in their lives, as they feel called by the Spirit.

Many people are familiar with Pennsylvania Dutch Country, thanks to films like Witness, and I've met many people in my travels who have gone to shows at Sight and Sound or toured Amish Country. But understanding the true nature of the region is not easy for someone who is not from there, and the idea that Lancaster/Lebanon Counties and their outlying areas are quaint, is not entirely accurate. Tobacco farming, long an economic foundation for the Amish, has fallen off as demand for their crops has decreased. And the encroaching development of the once-agrarian areas has endangered - and in some cases, forced out - longtime established families. Much "clean industry" has grown up in Lancaster County, in particular, as companies have relocated or set up additional offices in the area, and in the area papers, just before I left the area, there were increasing numbers of ads in newspapers of large metropolitan areas (such the New York Times), about relocating to Lancaster County. A lot has changed in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and a lot continues to.

Center City Philadelphia

In sharp contrast with the rural character of PA Dutch Country, Center City Philadelphia is the other half of the setting for this tale. The main character, Jax, like so many other lesbians from rural PA, has been unable to make peace with her home area, and moved to The City to build a different life for herself. I called Center City my home for a number of years, living in the Pine-Walnut Streets on the Old City side of Broad Street. When I first moved to Philly, I was told that a person could live their life without ever going more than 6-10 blocks from their home. It's true. Aside from my 10-block walks to work, I rarely went outside my immediate environment. I was a few minutes walk from Giovanni's Room, the gay/lesbian bookstore... not far from Hepburn's, the women's bar... within easy summertime striking distance of More Than Just Ice Cream... and a short bus ride away from the supermarket. Compared to rural PA, suburban New Jersey and southern Germany (where I lived prior to moving to Philly), the city was a deluge of stimuli which terrified me at first, and eventually comforted me with mundane anonymity.

Bait would not be the same without the influence of Philadelphia. I can't think of any locale more likely to provoke a reaction from the rural-based folks in the book, than Philly. It's a city. It's diverse. It's full of iniquity and drama and crime. That's one of the aspects that made Witness so compelling, I think, but that movie didn't do full justice to the piety and the religious convictions of the characters. What most people from outside the County don't understand, is just how deeply ingrained the morality and ethics of German pietism are in the land of cornstalks and cows. Philadelphia was to me - and I think to a lot of folks who get away from the rural life - a place to step away from so much of the homogenous pressure and develop for myself a belief system and a way of living that was truer to myself and my conscience, than what was taught me.

Perhaps this is what makes Philadelphia so suspect amongst the rural PA devout. I'm certainly not the only one of anabaptist heritage who has broken from the norm and developed my own belief system. Philly seems to have a liberating effect on people - like the folks of First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) and Germantown Mennonite, two congregations who are catching holy hell from their denominations for being open and accepting towards gays and lesbians. Lesbian Methodist minister Beth Stroud was defrocked, though she continues to serve her congregation as a lay minister. They hired her back immediately, with the same title as she'd had before, and the decision on her case was overturned. Her credentials were returned to her, but it's my understanding that she's not accepted a re-appointment, till the now-pending appeal of those whose decision was overturned, is final. I believe she's waiting to find out what really becomes of her, before she re-accepts her appointment. Additionally, Germantown Mennonite is drawing the ire of national Mennonite leaders. It's a hotbed of controversy, this mix of queers and Christians. And it's happening in Philadelphia -- where else?

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